In recent years the historically minor expenses attributable to utilization of the mails have significantly increased as a result of both direct and indirect mailing costs. As these expenses continue to spiral upwardly, the mailing habits of major industries are coming under closer scrutiny with a view to controlling such expenses. In this connection, many major manufacturers of postage meters and systems, including the assignee of the present invention, have recently introduced lines of meter-scale systems, which basically include a highly sensitive scale coupled to a postage meter which automatically prints the proper postage for franking the mailpieces weighed on the scale. Such meter-scale systems have been well received in the marketplace due to their eliminating the direct mailing costs attributable to human errors of the type which would otherwise result in overfranking letters and parcels. Other successful means have been devised for reducing indirect mailing costs. For example, the assignee of the present invention recently introduced a system for remotely resetting postage meters to eliminate the labor costs which would otherwise be incurred for hand-carrying postage meters to the local Post Office for resetting purposes.
With the above thoughts in mind, it should be appreciated that there is a need in the marketplace to provide suitable means for making a record of direct mailing costs on a current basis for cost analysis and other mail control purposes. Accordingly:
an object of the present invention is to provide a new article of manufacture suitable for use in interfacing a postage meter with, for example, electronic accounting apparatus adapted for recording successive postage meter transactions; PA1 a further object is to provide apparatus for interfacing a postage meter, of the type which includes a plurality of postage value selecting levers, with electronic accounting means; PA1 another object is to provide such apparatus with means for encoding the position of the postage value selecting levers of a postage meter; and PA1 yet another object is to provide an encoder which includes means for monitoring movement of the postage value selecting levers of a postage meter, including means for providing a signal which varies in response to movement of the postage meter levers from one position to another.